Mining the Census workshop: Thanks for stopping by

Dig into the new Census Bureau reports for endless business story ideas.

USA Today’s Paul Overberg and Arizona State University’s Steve Doig teach you how to mine the census for local business stories.

WHAT YOU WILL LEARN

• How to access and use Census and other government data sets with news about local businesses.
• You do not need to be able to use Excel or Access.  However, you or someone in your newsroom will need database skills to analyze the data that the workshop teaches you about. (For training in computer-assisted reporting (CAR) for business journalists, see the Reynolds Center’s Be a Better Business Watchdog workshop in Seattle on Sept 13.)

Steve Doig

The Census session will cover how to access and analyze local business data from the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey, Economic Census, County Business Patterns, Longitudinal Employer-Household Dynamics, plus how to track foreign trade, gross domestic product and household income down to the local level. The Reynolds Center will offer the same free workshop in Dallas on April 7.

Paul Overberg

Your instructors include two stalwarts in the National Institute for Computer-Assisted Reporting (NICAR): Steve Doig, Knight Chair in Journalism at Arizona State University’s Cronkite School, and Paul Overberg, database editor for USA Today.

In addition, John Duchneskie, graphics editor of The Philadelphia Inquirer, will do a lunchtime talk on how his paper used Census data to track poverty by neighborhood in Philadelphia. Here’s the agenda, with all times EST:

AGENDA: Mining the Census for Local Business Stories
(Click on sessions below to view PowerPoints.)

8:30 a.m.: Continental breakfast reception and registration

9 a.m.: Welcome and introductions — Kelly Carr, Senior Online Producer

9:15 a.m.: Overview of the Census: How the data is gathered and how to get at it — Doig

10 :15a.m.: Analyzing American Community Survey data, including data by occupation — Overberg

11:15 a.m.: Break

11:30 am.: Analyzing Longitudinal Employer-Household Dynamics data — Overberg

12:30 p.m.: Tracking poverty in Philly using Census data (Box lunch provided) — Duchneskie
Handout: Getting Hyperlocal with the Census (PDF)

1:30 p.m.: Analyzing County Business Patterns data — Overberg

2:30 p.m.: Analyzing data from the Economic Census, done of every business in years ending in 2 and 7 — Doig

3:30 p.m.: Break

3:45 p.m.: Analyzing gross domestic product down to the metro level — Overberg
Handout: Regional Multipliers

4:15 p.m.: Analyzing foreign trade down to the state level — Doig

5 p.m.: Adjourn